Introduction
New Mexico (Spanish: Nuevo México Spanish pronunciation: [ˈnweβo ˈmexiko] (listen), Navajo: Yootó Hahoodzo pronounced [jòːtxó xɑ̀xʷòːtsò]) is a state in the Southwestern region of the United States of America; its capital and cultural center is Santa Fe, which was founded in 1610 as capital of Nuevo México (itself established as a province of New Spain in 1598), while its largest city is Albuquerque with its accompanying metropolitan area. It is one of the Mountain States and shares the Four Corners region with Utah, Colorado, and Arizona; its other neighboring states are Oklahoma to the northeast, Texas to the east-southeast, and the Mexican states of Chihuahua to the south and Sonora to the southwest. With a population around two million, New Mexico is the 36th state by population. With a total area of 121,592 sq mi (314,920 km2), it is the fifth-largest and sixth-least densely populated of the 50 states. Due to their geographic locations, northern and eastern New Mexico exhibit a colder, alpine climate, while western and southern New Mexico exhibit a warmer, arid climate.
Featured article
The Four Corners is the survey point at the intersection of the four U.S. states of Utah, Colorado, New Mexico, and Arizona and the high desert plateau region surrounding that point in the southwestern United States. This is the only point in the United States where four states touch. Three of the four state corners are on the Navajo Indian Reservation. The fourth corner, Colorado, is on the Ute Mountain Indian Reservation.
The Four Corners Monument located there has a per person admission fee. Four Corners Monument is located at the coordinates 36°59′56.31532″N 109°02′42.62019″W / 36.9989764778°N 109.0451722750°W according to the U.S. National Geodetic Survey. US Highway 160 runs nearby while New Mexico State Road 597 serves as access road to the monument.
Because the Four Corners is part of a high Colorado Plateau, it is often a center for weather systems, which stabilize on the plateau, then proceed eastward toward the central and mountain states. This weather system creates snow and rainfall on the central part of the USA.
State Facts
- Nickname: Land of Enchantment
- Capital: Santa Fe
- State Officers
- Governor: Susana Martinez (R)
- Lieutenant Governor: John Sanchez (R)
- Secretary of State: Maggie Toulouse Oliver (D)
- Attorney General: Hector Balderas (D)
- Treasurer: Tim Eichenberg (D)
- Auditor:
- Commissioner of Public Lands: Aubrey Dunn Jr. (L)
- Total area: 121,665 sq.mi
- Land: 121,356 sq.mi
- Water: 234 sq.mi
- Highest elevation: 13,161 ft (Wheeler Peak, Colfax County)
- Population: 2,059,179 (2010 US Census)
- Date admitted to the Union: January 6, 1912,
- Senators: Martin Heinrich (D), Tom Udall (D)
- Representatives: Michelle Lujan Grisham (D), Steve Pearce (R), Ben Ray Luján (D)
State symbols: | |
State Capital: | Santa Fe |
State Mottos: | "Crescit eundo" ("It Grows as It Goes") |
State Songs: | "O Fair New Mexico" |
State Tree: | Two-Needle Piñon Pine |
State Flower: | Yucca flower |
State Grasses: | Blue grama |
State Bird: | Greater roadrunner |
State Animal: | Black Bear |
State Reptile: | New Mexico Whiptail Lizard |
State Amphibian: | New Mexico Spadefoot Toad |
State Fish: | Rio Grande cutthroat trout |
State Insect: | Tarantula Hawk Wasp |
State Butterfly: | Sandia Hairstreak |
State Cookie: | Bizcochito |
State Vegetables: | Hatch chile and Pinto Bean |
State Rock: | Turquoise |
State Poem: | A Nuevo Mexico |
State Ships: | USS New Mexico (BB-40) & USS New Mexico (SSN-779) |
State Quarter | |
State Question: | Red or green? (Asked of restaurant patrons who order chile) |
Did You Know?
- ... that NM is full of volcanoes: All major civic centers along the Río Grande are near young volcanoes, and Los Alamos is near the Valles Caldera (a supervolcano that exploded 1.25 million years ago).
- ... that Lincoln National Forest was the birthplace of the American Black Bear cub that became the living symbol of Smokey Bear.
- ... that Roswell, NM was a site for much of Robert Goddard's early rocketry work.
- ... that Taos Pueblo has been continuously inhabited for more than 1,000 years.
- ... that it's the chile capital of the world.
- ... that in the New Mexico State Penitentiary riot of 1980, 33 inmates were killed.
- ... the first European set foot in New Mexico in 1539, and he was black.
- ... that the Santa Fe Indian Market (an annual art market held in Santa Fe) draws an estimated 100,000 people.
- ... that NM is second only to Georgia in pecan production.
- ... that it's one of eight states that funds college scholarships with state lottery funds.
- ... that it has part of the nation's largest American Indian Reservation.
- ... that in 1957, the Air force accidentally dropped an H-bomb without a plutonium core in the city of Albuquerque, killing one cow.
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Selected image
Hotel "Inn and Spa at Loretto"
near to the Plaza in Santa Fe, New Mexico
Photo credit: User:JuliusR
New Mexico News
- January 5: Florida highway pileup, fire kills five children, two truck drivers
- January 19: Zimbabwean politician Bennett and four others die in New Mexico helicopter crash
- November 7: Wikinews interviews Mario J. Lucero and Isabel Ruiz of Heaven Sent Gaming
- February 28: Researcher discovers 39 new cockroach species, increasing genus Arenivaga fivefold
- February 16: 2013 IPC Alpine Skiing World Championships preparations underway
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Selected biography
Navajo has more speakers than any other Native American language north of the U.S.-Mexico border, with 170,717 self-reported speakers in 2007, and this number has increased with time. The grestest numbers are in New Mexico. During World War II, the language was used as a code in the Pacific War by bilingual Navajo code talkers to send secure military messages over radio. This had the advantage of being an extremely fast method of encrypted communication; the code was never broken by the Japanese.
Collaborators
Attractions
- Santa Fe
- Plaza of Santa Fe
- Loretto Chapel
- San Miguel Mission
- Cathedral Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi
- New Mexico Museum of Art
- Museum of Indian Arts and Culture
- Georgia O'Keeffe Museum
- Museum of International Folk Art
- New Mexico History Museum
- El Rancho de las Golondrinas (Spanish Colonial living history museum)
- Santa Fe Indian Market
- Taos County
- Acoma Sky Pueblo
- Carlsbad Caverns National Park
- White Sands National Monument, the Trinity Site, and Missile Range, Alamogordo
- Albuquerque
- Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta
- Old Town Albuquerque
- Petroglyph National Monument
- New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science
- Rio Grande Zoo
- Albuquerque Biological Park
- Sandia Peak Tramway
- National Museum of Nuclear Science & History
- Indian Pueblo Cultural Center
- Expo New Mexico, formerly the New Mexico State Fairgrounds
- Chaco Culture National Historical Park, San Juan Basin
- Cumbres and Toltec Scenic Railroad, Chama
- Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monument, Silver City
- Roswell
- Upham
- Black Jack Ketchum in Clayton
- Billy the Kid Museum, Fort Sumner
- Historic Lincoln, Ruidoso, and Mescalero Apache Indian Reservation
- Sierra County Recreation and Tourism website link
- Silver City was a gold mining town in the Wild West.
- The Piños Altos is a ghost town located near Silver City.
- Acoma Pueblo & Mission
- Socorro
- Catron County
The state also has a number of casinos located on Native American Indian Reservations that attract thousands of visitors each year.